Ex-soldier was drug driving

Arnold Hamilton was first spotted in Freckleton driving up and down School Lane with his car door open. Hamilton, a 46-year-old warehouse worker, of Sylvan Croft, Ingol, Preston, pleaded guilty to drug driving.

He was banned from the road for 20 months and fined £300 with £85 costs plus £30 victims’ surcharge by Blackpool magistrates.

A blood test showed he was more than three times over the drug level driving with 823 units of amphetamine in his body - 250 is the limit.

Mitch Sarangi, defending, said his client, who had no previous convictions, had been in the services for nine years and saw active service in the first Gulf War. As a result he had mental health and drug issues for which he had He had not taken drugs for some time, but while he was repairing his car he found some old amphetamine under the seat.